Both sides possessed weapons that could blow a planet’s atmosphere right off or radiate the place so badly that no one could live there, but the goal of gaining a habitable planet took those weapons off the table. Instead it set the engineers from both sides working on devices that delivered their terrible effect but didn’t permanently alter the ground where they were used.

The tech had become visibly disturbed when he reached the logical conclusion that the limited war calculus would no doubt be dropped the day either side found the enemy’s home planets.

The book is a survival story during the Sim war, a war between humans and similarly-looking aliens. Lieutenant Mortas and three others crash on a desolate planet and fight to survive.

The four characters are nicely constructed, the infantryman, the scout, the tech and the psychoanalyst, and their struggle is believable and interesting. While less action-packed than other series, the pace of the story is fast enough to keep the reader engaged. The plot is nicely constructed with many twists and turns. The end is fantastic and unexpected. An original military sci fi overall.

The survival story could have been better developed and more imaginative, but it was interesting enough to keep the reader engaged. The narrative is focusing rather on characters then on the surroundings or the events. Nonetheless, it was a pleasure to follow the four in their fight.

A nice read for the fans of the genre.